thelesterlee
RJ Barrett was always supposed to be a star. He was the number one recruit coming out of high school. But upon joining Duke, he teamed up with Zion Williamson and Cam Reddish and the 3 of them joined forces to make Zion look like the greatest athlete in the history of history.
Barrett then ended up being drafted 3rd overall behind Zion and Ja Morant. Both of the players drafted ahead of him have already been crowned as the stars of that draft class while RJ Barrett gets left off literally every single ‘Top 25 players under 25’ list despite being the 2nd scorer on a team that was the 4 seed last season.
The disrespect/neglect ends this season as RJ has decided to show the world that he is truly that dude.
Over the Knicks past three games, RJ Barrett is averaging:
27.3 points,
5.7 rebounds,
2.3 assists,
4.0 made treys,
while shooting 63% from the floor, 63.2% from deep and 80% from the FT stripe— Tommy Beer (@TommyBeer) November 2, 2021
Monday night’s game against the Raptors was the perfect example of what RJ is capable of. Julius Randle scored 18 points in the first quarter and the Knicks were dominating Toronto. But Randle has a tendency to revert back to the worst versions of himself. When he shot stops falling, he puts his head down and dribbles into double teams getting stripped left and right because when I say he puts his head down I mean he literally needs to look at the ball when he dribbles like a child.
But RJ stayed steady and active both offensively and defensively. Barrett led all Knicks with 10 points in the 4th quarter hitting a pair of 3’s and snatching a crucial steal. The Knicks lost because the rest of the team fell asleep but even in a loss, you can see Barrett battling every single possession.
RJ Barrett is done being the quiet 2nd scorer of the Knicks. If Julius Randle is turning into a pumpkin and looking the way he did in the playoffs against the Hawks then New York’s success is completely dependent on the rise of RJ and he looks more than ready to take on that burden.
Also real quick, Evan Fournier pass the ball and play defense. I dare you. Or get the fuck out of the way and let RJ cook.
